By Kerri Pepoy,Staff Writer

OXFORD – Thirteen employees of Viking Motors on Route 26 were taken to Stephens Memorial Hospital on Thursday after a carbon monoxide detector in the main building of the auto dealership showed an elevated reading, emergency officials said.

A nursing supervisor said Thursday night that none of them was still there.

Capt. John Monahan of the Oxford Fire Department said the incident is under investigation. He said officials are unsure if a furnace malfunction was the cause.

“They had an issue with the furnace over the weekend and then some complaints of people not feeling well,” he said. “Management called us to come and take a reading. We’ve been there the last three days. The readings were zero until today.”

Monahan said the reading on Thursday was “over the normal limit.”

The building was evacuated and employees were taken by ambulance to the hospital.

Lt. Steven Cordwell of the Fire Department said the employees were all conscious at the scene. “They were all walking. We gave them some oxygen and took them up as a precaution,” he said. “The readings were high enough so people could have started getting sick if they had been in a closed area for a while.”

One firetruck and two ambulances responded.

The incident occurred in the dealership’s main building where the showroom and service department are housed. A second building that houses the auto body shop and a reconditioning shop were not affected.